Journal writing, close up Constructivism, the theory upon which constructivist therapy is founded, holds both a person'southward individual sense of reality and the significant found in life to be constructed from life experience, rather than discovered. In this way, experience has an touch on the way people view and understand the world.

In terms of clinical psychology, constructivist theories emphasize the active participation of those seeking therapy as they work to create change. Individuals are agents of their own modify, and therapy is their ain work, not something they simply "receive."

  • Understanding Constructivism
  • The Influences of Constructivism
  • The Function of the Constructivist Therapist
  • What Bug Practice Constructivist Approaches Address?
  • Concerns and Limitations

Understanding Constructivism

Constructivist theory does not lend itself to ane detail type of therapy but has instead had significant impact on the field of psychology in general. According to proponents of constructivism, the model is not a new or different approach merely is simply i perspective on how different modalities are continued and how they chronicle to the knowledge of what it ways to be human being. In particular, constructivism seeks to explore the search for meaning and the means people relate to the world.

The idea that reality is constructed, not discovered, is a principal tenet of this theory. There is no ane objective view of the globe, constructivism theory suggests. Instead, every person creates their own version of reality, a perspective built out of each individual's unique life experiences.

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Important themes in constructivism include order, sense of self, and active agency.

  • People, out of a need for club, find patterns and create meanings to organize the world in an easily understandable way.
  • One'due south human relationship with the self is important, but fluid, every bit it is impacted by personal experience and interactions with other people.
  • People are agile agents in their own lives. Though some things are beyond a person's control, it is upward to each person to increase personal agreement of the earth and, ultimately, make choices beneficial to well-being.

The Influence of Constructivism

Approaches to therapy that comprise constructivist ideas typically involve an exploration of the meaning people assign to experiences, an acknowledgment that thoughts and beliefs affect feelings, and encouragement (on the part of the therapist) of people in therapy to be active participants in the alter process. These therapies value a collaborative approach to therapy—one where the therapist and person in treatment are equals who work together to aid the person brand positive changes.

The influences of constructivism can exist seen in several unlike modalities, including humanistic, person-centered, cognitive behavioral, dialectical, and existential approaches to therapy. George Kelly's personal construct psychology was one of the get-go approaches to integrate constructivist theory. This arroyo, pioneered in the mid-1950s, is a person-as-scientist arroyo grounded in the idea that people utilize personal constructs (alike to hypothesis or theories) to predict the behavior of others. Because the individual acts every bit the scientist, these constructions may be continually tested and contradistinct when individuals attempt new behaviors and consider new perspectives, whether this occurs in a therapy session or in daily life.

The Role of the Constructivist Therapist

Constructivism, which views the person in treatment every bit the agent of change, tin can be considered more of a philosophy than a set of therapeutic techniques. In club to organize and brand sense of the world, people tend to create meaning out of events. This ofttimes leads to the emergence of patterns, which can impact emotions, thoughts, and behaviors and may be difficult to transform. Constructivist therapists, who act as facilitators of modify rather than leaders, tin assist those in treatment recognize these patterns and pause costless of them in order to create change.The idea that reality is constructed, non discovered, is a main tenet of this theory.

Constructivist therapists, who often have a great deal of faith in theresilience of all individuals equally well as the human capacity for cocky-reorganization. typically pay close attention to exactly how a person has used life experiences to chronicle to electric current circumstances. Frequently they piece of work with the person in treatment to create a chain of events (action-thought-reaction) in social club to uncover how these patterns of idea, emotion, and behavior have affected the person's life thus far and how they might continue to do and then in the future.

Practitioners of constructivism may utilise techniques such as journaling, guided imagery, and sensory sensation exercises. They may likewise help people in treatment externalize problems, a technique oftentimes used in narrative therapy.

What Issues Tin can Constructivist Approaches Accost?

Therapies that are influenced by constructivism tin exist beneficial in the treatment of a wide range of issues. Constructivist methodologies can be specially helpful in the handling of grief, every bit the reconstruction of meaning is often integral to the process of grieving. A person who has experienced loss is often faced with the challenge of reorganizing and reconstructing reality in the absenteeism of the person they have lost. This may involve the evolution of new routines and relationships and may lead some to adopt a new form of identity in the process.

People who are finding it difficult to make sense of trauma they have experienced may also find constructivist approaches helpful, as may individuals who have concerns and/or questions related to their own sense of identity. Constructivist approaches can also help some people better empathize existential concepts and questions.

Concerns and Limitations

The theory of constructivism has been criticized for the thought that in that location is no one truth considering all truths are equally valid. Constructivism has been considered to be somewhat at odds with the concept of the self every bit it is typically understood in psychology. Traditionally, psychology has focused on the private, often minimizing the role of context and culture, only constructivism looks at the context in which the self exists and considers the self to be fluid and irresolute.

References:

  1. Granvold, D.K. (1996). Constructivist psychotherapy. Families in gild, 77(6), 345-359.
  2. Liu, C.H., & Matthews, R. (2005). Vygotsky's philosophy: Constructivism and its criticisms explained. International Education Periodical, six(3), 386-399.
  3. Mahoney, Yard.J., & Granvold, D.G. (2005). Constructivism and psychotherapy. Globe Psychiatry, iv(2). Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1414735
  4. ​Neimeyer, R.A., & Bridges, S. (2004, Feb 15). Personal construct theory. The internet encyclopedia of personal construct psychology.Retrieved from http://www.pcp-internet.org/encyclopaedia/pc-theory.html
  5. Raskin, J.D. (2002). Constructivism in psychology: Personal construct psychology, radical constructivism, and social constructionism. American Communication Journal, 5(3). Retrieved from https://kinesthesia.newpaltz.edu/jonathanraskin/files/Raskin-2002-ACJ-reprint-updated-appendix.pdf